“What’s the matter?” Valentin asked looking at her worried face expression. He leaned down and kissed her before she could answer, running his hands through her hair.
Ellie was turned on by her arousal on his tongue. She had never experienced such a primal thing before, and she wanted more, but after his performance, she realized that there was no way she could bluff her way through this. He was an expert and she was a beginner and if that made her so unattractive to him, then so be it. She closed her eyes and said evenly, “I realize now that I’m out of my depth. I’ve come close to having sex before, but for many reasons it just never happened. I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to think I’m not interested. I just haven’t practiced. I wasn’t in the best of places when I moved to House Rega and the thought of being with a slave artist, well, it just wasn’t for me.” Ellie hadn’t expected the emotion that would pour from her with that admission, but suddenly there were tears falling from the sides of her eyes.
Valentine listened to her words and felt pity for her. He wanted to ask so many questions about her life on Earth but knew they would have to wait. At the moment she needed solace. “Zzzzz,” Valentin whispered the Alliance sound for comfort. “Elloisa, I don’t expect you to be perfect at anything the first time and don’t feel that I expect you to know anything. I do appreciate your honesty.” He felt so sorry for her then, thinking about the devastation she must have felt watching her mother be murdered only to be taken in by her murderer. As civilized as Jane’s trial might have been to Imperial eyes, he was not immune to the horror it would be to human eyes. Valentin could do nothing but hold her close to him as she cried. He stroked her long blonde hair all the while saying, “It’s okay,” repeatedly until he felt her completely relax and then fall asleep. While she slept, he wondered if she would be able to be intimate with him, having the same skin complexion as the man who killed her mother. But then he dismissed that thought because she was attracted to him. No, he thought, she is tired and overwhelmed and the Empire has muddled her mind about sex. What it is and what it isn’t. He thought a lot about the slave artists and what she must have seen or heard in House Rega. Of course, he knew human customs and understood how shocked she must have been, especially if she had been taken to a women’s spa to educate her. He continued stroking her hair and said softly to her sleeping form, “We will work this out.” Then he let himself fall asleep as well.
Ellie felt different. She opened her eyes and they were met with tattooed grey skin. She was with Valentin in his bed in his arms. They were naked. She closed her eyes again breathing in his scent and went over everything they had talked about and done. She was comforted by his easy and steady breathing. He was asleep. Ellie was relieved that she was here, in his embrace and not alone, as she rehashed the last day in her mind.
She moved her head a bit, doing her best not to wake him and looked up at the top of the bed. Like hers it was a modern four-poster bed and she wondered why. It was so old-fashioned to have such a thing in the 27th century. Then her mind began to wonder what the bed could do. She thought about the clear transport and wondered if these beds also were mini-holo-suites that could recreate anything, not just tools for serious sex sessions. She knew from her own bed in House Rega that Imperial bed functions were mainly for sex. She was so tempted to ask the bed for its menu, but resisted because she didn’t want to wake Valentin and it would be an invasion of his privacy if he had personal selections saved on it.
She tried to redirect her thoughts back to reality. Am I really going to do this? Or am I going to return to House Rega and Magnolia? Marry a maximum class Imperial man that meets Jei’s high standards but who will bore me to death? Or will I take this opportunity to return to Earth? Immediately, Ellie thought, I’m never going back to Earth. I’m done with that. But even with her strong conviction about her decision never to return to Earth it didn’t mean the decision didn’t hurt and she shed some quiet tears. It hurts to think, I’m never going to live on my home planet again. But after a few minutes of self-pity, she rallied herself and continued thinking about her current situation. Both were good opportunities, to live with either Valentin or Admiral Jei. But she already felt like she loved Valentin and with him she could have the same opportunities, a career, a home and family, everything that she would have had in the Empire. Except here, she would be outside the Empire and that was the only question mark she had. She didn’t know what it really meant in the eyes of galaxy or even in the Empire to be a Reima Two citizen. Ellie strongly felt already this was another case of Imperial people saying one thing but doing the complete opposite. They all pretended that it was the worst thing in the world to be an Outcast, yet they still did business and associated with Outcasts frequently. They did not destroy Reima Two or sanction trade with the planet. The only thing she really needed to figure out was what it really meant to be an Outcast. As to Valentin, she was in lust and possibly love. From what she had seen of him so far, she thought that she was happy to spend the rest of her life with him. He had done some terrible things, but she did believe him when he said that the Octopods would have done worse to those women. Despite what Valentin thought, Ellie did feel responsible for those women’s deaths too as they would have never been found by the Empire had her mother not gone after her. Everything in life was a cause and effect and no one was unconnected or completely innocent.
Valentin opened his eyes and lifted his head to look down at Elloisa. Her eyes were wet again. He held her closer to him and made some comforting sounds.
“You know when you do that, you’re doing it in Alliance?” Ellie asked quietly.
“I didn’t realize,” he replied just as softly. “It’s probably because my mother is Alliance. My father is more of the ‘Come on Valentin, you can do it. Pull yourself up,’ kind of man.”
Ellie smiled at that, “They sound like a good balance. I’d like to meet them.”
“And you will if we marry. But I must warn you, they think Admiral Jei has spoiled you.”
“I can’t say he hasn’t,” Ellie admitted. “I think he feels badly about what happened with my mother.”
“I think he would have done it either way. Some Alliance men enjoy indulging women as a rule.”
Ellie sat up and looked at him, “You’ve done quite a lot of spoiling so far, the clothing and all the preparation for the husband stealing. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Valentin smiled, “It’s different for me. I’m wooing you. If you were my ward, I would have never let anyone seduce you away.”
Ellie ran her fingers over Valentin’s hairless muscular chest, tracing some of his tattoos. “Okay,” she replied sarcastically.
Valentin didn’t know how to answer her, so he just pulled her strongly against him and they just held each other for a few minutes.
“I wonder what time it is?” Ellie asked.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m used to a schedule with prayers, classes, eating times, and all…” Ellie couldn’t finish her sentence because just then, there was a chime at the double-door main entrance of Valentin’s bedroom.